I'm sorry but Showjumping just isn't a spectator sport.

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BBH

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I am watching the BBC red button coverage and as a fan I have to accept that SJing is not a spectator sport in its current format.

The commentary is about as flat, dire and dull as I've ever heard. There is no atmosphere in the arena at all and loads of empty seats.

One horse after the other doing the same thing around the same course is very hard to inject any life or enthusiasm into it or some competitiveness .

I think the only people who enjoy this are those taking part or connections or possibly those at home who Showjump,

How can it be made more spectator friendly.
 
BBH said:
I am watching the BBC red button coverage and as a fan I have to accept that SJing is not a spectator sport in its current format.

The commentary is about as flat, dire and dull as I've ever heard. There is no atmosphere in the arena at all and loads of empty seats.

One horse after the other doing the same thing around the same course is very hard to inject any life or enthusiasm into it or some competitiveness .

I think the only people who enjoy this are those taking part or connections or possibly those at home who Showjump,

How can it be made more spectator friendly.
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Eh.. things can happen in showjumping just like it can in eventing. I quite enjoy watching SJ but then I dislike watching DR..
 
Thanks for the heads up though. I didn't realise it was on. There's not enough equestrian sports on TV as it is but I always try to watch it when it is, regardless of what discipline!
 
You should come and watch the showjumping at Dublin horse show, fantastic commentary (in fact I think it's the same commentator that does international/southern eventing here) and brilliant, fun atmosphere.
Very spectator friendly so much so that the reserved seating is normally sold out months before the show!!

Also thanks for letting us know that there is SJ on live, didn't realise :)
 
I think the most fun I've ever had watching showjumping was the equestrian round of the pentathlon at the London Olympics... And why? Honestly, because of the chaos... Riders, horses and poles scattering everywhere. And quite an amusing commentator who knew where to lay the blame (not on the horses!).

Sadly I think that most sports aren't captivating to watch at all - not just equestrian sports - unless something dramatic happens. It's worse if you can't have a rivalry or some psychological element - for instance I think tennis is lots of fun to watch because it's a one-on-one fight and you can get behind one person and relate to them on an emotional level.

Showjumping would be more interesting if there were head-to-head competitions and if the jumps were too difficult (difficult turns for instance) for even the best to do perfectly. Switching horses would make it more fun too... But that gets tricky. I'd be glued watching a competition where riders have to swap horses and do two rounds (one on their own horse and one on a random other). Though it may not appeal to non-equestrians in the same way.

I don't really enjoy watching eventing all that much either... I do watch dressage (especially freestyle) but that's because there's a technical element to it, which I understand, plus the creative aspect (like watching a rhythmic gymnastics routine or ice skating really). With jumping or eventing, it's too simple and the same thing just happens over and over...

Saying that, there are a handful of riders with very distinctive styles who do make it all more interesting - for a bit at least!
 
I like it. I don't think you can say it's not a spectator sport. It's what you're interested in.

I mean golf, people actually watch that. They enjoy watching it! Would I watch it? Not in a million years.
 
FfionWinnie said:
I mean golf, people actually watch that. They enjoy watching it! Would I watch it? Not in a million years.
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Very good point! To be fair, it's all relative isn't it? Each to their own. I do think good quality, entertaining, insightful commentary def helps though, whatever the sport or discipline.
 
I was surprised to see the empty seats in the background of photos on H&H particularly at Aachen. I think the first team round of a major champs is probably more for the keen show jumping fan and personally I find that with so little show jumping on bbc (I don't have Sky) that I don't recognise many of the horses or riders or even really know that much about the global show jumping scene so have less interest than I did in years gone by. That said will watch some if it tonight as recorded it earlier.
 
To be fair to Aachen, that main arena seats what, 40 000 odd? Olympia in comparison is a tiny 6000 ish maybe. Plus it's a week day (ok in school hols) but it is a week day and it's first round too. I noticed that the Global Tour at Syon Park wasn't full this year compared to when it was held at Horseguards in 2014.

OP, did you see this? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/equestrian/34007827 Not always boring...
 
I like watching it, amazing horses at the top of their game and precision control. I don't watch snooker, darts or golf though- they get more air time!
 
Watched quite a lot of it last night and I don't think the camera angles were the best. Didn't find the BBC commentary annoying partly as was often talking over it anyway and they kept quite quiet quite a lot of the time. Mind you I went to the Europeans a number of years back and did watch every single jumping round from the start of the speed class to the final horse in the individual so I have form for show jumping viewing. I say a few years back - it was Hickstead in I think 1985....
 
I personally don't think dressage is a hugely spectator sport... I quite enjoy the freestyle but fundamentally disagree that the tension demonstrated by a vast majority of top level dressage is enjoyable to watch and so I avoid it.

I don't think show jumping is either simple or repetitive - it's just what you're into isn't it. Not sure it's fair to say it isn't a spectator sport because you don't enjoy watching it, plenty of others do. :)
 
From personal point of view I love to watch SJ at any level, I don't get to normally due to kids/horse/work/life in general and don't have Sky plus, or Sky etc...

But looking at the sport from a non horsey point of view, I don't think there are the 'characters' that non horsey people can maybe identify with? Looking back in time most people had heard of Harvey Smith, David Broom, Geoff Billington etc... A bit of character in the ring.

I think to have a wider spectator audience you need that personality in the sport.

A lot of non horsey people just think it's a bunch of toffs in posh jackets on horses (not my words - I am not of this opinion lol!) , just trying to say what general public think. One of my work colleagues was always taking the p*** out of dressage saying its 'not a sport, trotting about on a horse', which of course I always rose to and would start trying to educate them on what it does involve...

That is not just equestrianism either, this goes for other sports.
 
Also agree there's no background stories any more to capture the imagination of non horsey people. All the horses are bred to do the job so no Marion Mould who never outgrew her pony, David Broome on an American ex racer, Ryan's Son bucking and jumping in his old broken bit that he arrived with, Harvey Smith jumping bareback because his girth broke as he went in...And as there's more money in the sport, riders have a Puissance horse and a derby horse and a speed horse, so much harder to find one to follow that is there in whatever competition you turn on.
 
I enjoy Showjumping but if you are trying to make it more popular to increase the appeal to others I think it definitely has to liven up, only the diehard enthusiast could sit through round after round of riders you've never heard of , horses you've never heard of with unpronounceable names and a competition you don't know the rules of. If the commentators are quiet then nobody learns anything.
Also for GCT for example we only see one leg so we don't know who is doing what and there is no build up so no excitement .

For me all they'd need to offer is a highlights programme of the British and that's fine.

I took a friend to Olympia and she loved it so booked for horse guards parade for the British leg last year and we left because it was so un exciting for her without something else to mix it up a bit.
 
Showing my age here but in the 1970's showjumping was very popular family entertainment on TV. Neither of my parents knew one end of a horse from the other but would happily watch showjumping on the telly. I remember staying with a family in Billingham for a month whilst on a training course, a lovely family who knew nothing about horses but we all sat and watched the showjumping and thoroughly enjoyed it. I still love to watch it but now I have a better understanding of what I'm watching and just how difficult it can be!
 
teapot said:
The appeal didn't get upheld either so no Rio team qualification for Ireland either.
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That was appalling, such a shame for Ireland. The BBC commentary annoyed me a bit around that - saying it was an overreaction on Cian's behalf. Pretty sure that had it happened to a British rider they would have been up in arms.

To the OP, personally I enjoy watching it and I don't think it's any less a spectator sport than dressage or eventing. That said, I agree with the poster who said the sport lacks stories and "personalities" that you have more of in other sports. The fact that so much of it happens abroad and isn't televised makes it harder to keep up with and you don't get the momentum and tension from a story building up over time.
 
FfionWinnie said:
I like it. I don't think you can say it's not a spectator sport. It's what you're interested in.

I mean golf, people actually watch that. They enjoy watching it! Would I watch it? Not in a million years.
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Or cricket. And football bores me to tears and there's hours of it every week.
 
ETS: apparently the 'appeal not upheld' thing isn't true (so Clare Balding's tweet was incorrect) and they're STILL waiting on a decision.
 
I think part of the trouble is there's so many good horses that all look fairly similar with similar styles of jumping and names that are often uninteresting, there just aren't the equine personalities that were around years ago. There used to be so many more different types of horse, with more memorable names that tended to stay with the same rider, we just don't have that anymore.
 
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